Airport Hot Sauce

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with some amazing women, including my KateyJ.  This was a fibery retreat, so there was tons of knitting, and spinning, and carding, and weaving.  The carding and spinning was mostly me.  I signed up to cook Jambalaya on Friday night, and somehow, despite my submitting a somewhat dubious shopping list, we had all the ingredients to make a yummy New Orleans style dinner.  Or did we?

Katey had the grace to pick 5 of us up at the airport.  You can imagine the herd of cats involved with having 5 women fly in afrom all over the continent (Gladys came from Vancouver).  We did all manage to arrive within about three hours of one another, and the knitting started right in the airport.  Apparently, airport food in Atlanta includes collards, black eyed peas, fried chicken, and any other southern delicacy you can think of.  And, of course, hot sauce. 

Gladys became concerned that we might not have the requisite hot sauce at the rental house.  Despite the fact that, in a house full of women, one can assume that at least one shopping trip must occur, we felt we might not have another chance to requisition this crucial ingredient in creole cooking.  So we borrowed the airport hot sauce.

This particular bottle of Tabasco remained on our dinner table all weekend, and seasoned my Jambalaya just right.  When the weekend was over, we returned it to the appropriate food stand.  The Jambalaya turned out pretty good, and new colorway was born.

Airport Hot Sauce on Djinni

In case you want to try making this Louisiana classic yourself, I've included the recipe, inspired by Leon Soniat's La Bouche Creole:

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
1 lb Andouille Sausage                     2 Bay leaves
1 Chicken, cut up                              1/4 t Cayenne
1 Onion, chopped                              Black pepper to taste
1 Green pepper, chopped                  1 t Salt
3 Stalks Celery, chopped                  Approx t Thyme
2 cloves Garlic, pressed or minced   Approx t Basil
Approx 3 T Olive oil                        Approx t oregano
Approx 3 T flour                              1 can diced Tomatos
1/2 6 oz Tomato paste                      2 c Rice, long grain
2 c Beef stock                                   Parsley, chopped
4 c Chicken stock                           
                                                       
 Tabasco or other hot sauce              Lemon juice

Poke holes in sausage with a fork and brown.  Remove, and brown chicken (I take the skins off and even sometimes use boneless breasts).  Add a little olive oil if necessary.  Remove, and make a roux with the oil and flour over low-med heat, stirring almost constantly with a wooden spoon until  your roux is light to medium brown.  Add your "trinity" (onion, pepper, and celery) plus the garlic and stir till almost translucent.  Add tomato paste (I like to brown it a little), then your can of tomatoes, and stocks.  Stir and add spices, then rice.  Bring to a boil, then add chicken, and sausage cut into bite size pieces, stirring well.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes, then add rice.  Boil, then simmer for about 20-25 minutes with top on.  Now, take a look and see if it's the consistency you like.  I don't like mine too dry, but if it's too soupy, turn up the heat a lttle and cook with top off, stirring until you can eat our jambalaya on a plate.  Add the green onions, parsley, squeeze in some lemon juice, and add your hot sauce to taste.  Serve it up with a salad, warm crusty French bread, and as much hot sauce as you like!  Also yummy with shrimps or oysters.  Add at the end of cooking:)

In other news, we'll be Sitting and Knitting at the studio tomorrow, Sunday from 2 to 5 pm.  Bring your project and come hang out!

Rockit in Space